They'll Throw His Book At Him 'Wall Street Swindler' May Return To Haunt Its Author

June 8, 1987|By United Press International

FORT LAUDERDALE — Prosecutors plan to use a suspect's autobiography as evidence in his $4.3 million federal bank fraud trial that begins today.

They say that the book Wall Street Swindler: An Insider's Story of Mob Operations in the Stock Market could spell doom for mob informant Michael Rapp, its author and one of seven defendants charged with defrauding a South Florida bank through a worthless check scheme.

''Wherever I've gone I've found greedy people, all looking to make a fast buck,'' Rapp wrote in the 1977 book. ''My success as a swindler was based on the greed and avarice of others.''

In the book, Rapp talks about a decision he made as he stood at his father's grave, ridden with guilt for draining the family finances to pay gambling debts.

''I was going to be rich and I was going to get money any way I could,'' the 48-year-old Rapp wrote, ''even if that meant I had to become partners with mobsters.''

The book detailed how Rapp, then a broker, made hundreds of thousands of dollars manipulating stocks and offering investments to mob leaders.

After a conviction in 1971 on securities fraud, he served most of a nine-month sentence in ''safe houses'' awaiting court appearances to testify against the mob.

In his book and legal papers, Rapp said his testimony put more than 30 Mafia crime figures in jail. He said he rehabilitated himself and ''terminated criminal activities.'' Prosecutors dispute that, citing another portion of the book.

''My problem was, I like living high,'' Rapp wrote in his book. ''I knew if I dared chance it again, I could pull off a swindle that would make me a rich man again.''

Rapp in December 1983 opened a corporate checking account at Flagship National Bank of Miami, which since has changed ownership. Prosecutors

charge that over the next six months Rapp and others deposited worthless checks from phony corporations, then withdraw $4.3 million in cash and cashier's checks.

Rapp said the bank wanted his business and extended credit ''in the form of overdrafts, which were then converted to loans'' then accused him of fraud in order to cover up their questionable decisions.

Prosecutors said many of transactions went through an account Rapp opened for a Hallandale restaurant, now defunct. But Rapp claims the FBI ''acquiesced'' in his financial practices because it was using the restaurant to spy on one of his co-defendants, a reputed underworld businesman.

In January a federal jury in Orlando convicted Rapp of being mastermind of a $7 million bank loan swindle. He was sentenced to 32 years and faces various suits claiming he helped drain more than $10 million from banks in New York and Los Angeles.